You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Exactly what truth is God talking about though? Of course He is talking about the word but there is much more to be interpreted from this verse. The truth means the truth about everything. Facing truth is what sets us free from the things that hold us back from our absolute best. For today I am going to focus on some of the things that I have experienced freedom in from facing truth.

The truth about self was a really hard one for me. Because I experienced abandonment, abuse, and alot of rejection in my childhood I got entangled with acceptance. I wanted to be accepted so bad by others that I would adapt to what I thought others wanted me to be like. I would change myself to go along with the crowd that i was around at the time. I did things that I really didn’t want to do and did things that I knew I should not have done. I ended up becoming a very angry, bitter, and rebellious person from trying to protect myself from the pain of rejection. I blamed everyone else for my problems and I caused a lot of pain to others.

Because we have an enemy that thrives on putting lies in our head I formed a false belief that I was unlovable and not worth anything. I believed that the only value that I had was what I could do to benefit someone else. I had messed up too much and everyone, including God, would never forgive me or trust in me again. I was a stupid idiot and a lost cause. Talk about self hatred, right.

Then God got ahold of me and the Holy Spirit began working with me on facing truth. As I began reading scripture and learning the truth about God and His unconditional love and acceptance of me the Holy Spirit lead me to facing my truth. The truth about my past, my pain, my wrongs, my mistakes, my life, and who it was that I was created to be.

In the beginning I resisted. I still tried the blame game. You know the game of, “if so and so wouldn’t have done this then i wouldn’t have ______, it’s not my fault because I was abused, they made me _______, I can’t help that ________happened to me, I am the way I am because of _______.” I tried to excuse and blame my way out of the truth. Then the Holy Spirit said, “if you ever want to be free from the pain and torment and be happy then you have to accept responsibility for your actions and where you are at in life right now.”

God gave me a understanding that while it was not my fault that those bad things were done to me or that people did not accept me, it was my responsibility as to how I reacted to it. My attitude and my actions were all my fault. I chose to act and be the way that I was. My life was stuck where it was at because of my choices..Talk about a huge slap in the face right. But that truth right there lifted a thousand pounds off my heart. While I couldn’t control what other people did, I could control what I did. It was not my responsibility to make people approve of me. It was not my fault if they chose to not like me. And it was my choice to either let them bother me by their disapproval or to accept the fact that not everyone is going to like me and to be okay with that. I couldn’t undo what was already done but I could strive to do better from here on out. I was not a lost cause but I was lost before I found the truth in God and now I am on the road to freedom.

There was nothing wrong with me because others disapproved of me. I was fearfully and wonderfully made by God. I was created with uniqueness. I am always loved and accepted unconditionally by God and noone can ever take that away from me. I was created for a purpose and with great talents. Everyone was made to be different so that we could work together to compliment each other. I have strengths that others do not and I also have weaknesses that others do not but that is okay. We all have different personalities because God likes variety. He made no two people alike.

The things that happened in my past were not right. The abuse that I suffered was not my fault. I could chose to not let those people to continue to hurt me by holding onto the anger that i felt. The very people that caused me pain were more than likely in pain themselves. Not that it makes what they did okay but it sets me free from lie that it had something to do with me.

Learning the truth of God’s word and the love and acceptance that He has for me set me free from the cravings of acceptance from others. Learning the truth of who He created me to be set me free to be me. And learning that I had a choice in my actions and emotions set me free to make betters ones. The truth is not always easy to accept. Taking responsibility for our actions can be torment at first. But one thing is for certain, the truth shall set you free.